Automatic manufacture of clothing

ABSTRACT

A continuous conveyor, a series of pallets mounted thereon, a tooling station on each pallet, a work nest mounted in association with each tooling station, means automatically applying garment parts having dry adhesives thereon in a predetermined relation to the work nests so that the various garment parts are correctly aligned and overlap each other to a certain degree, and automatic means providing for activating the adhesive, securing said garments in the relationship in which they were deposited on the various work nests.

United States Patent Kendall, Sr.

[ 51 Mar. 21, 1972 [54] AUTOMATIC MANUFACTURE OF CLOTHING [72] Inventor: George 11. Kendall, Sr., New London,

Conn.

[73] Assignee: Kendall-Russell, lnc., Marblehead, Mass.

[22] Filed: Sept. 3, 1969 [21] Appl. No.: 854,969

[52] U.S.Cl. ..l56/559,112/121.11X, 156/250 [51] Int. Cl ..B32b 1/00 [58] Field of Search ..270/58; 112/121.11; 156/567, 156/559, 560,561,250, 550

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,590,367 6/1926 Grimm et a1 ..156/559 3,130,107 4/1964 Shank ,.156/559 3,531,107 9/1970 Rovinetal ..1l2/l2l.llX

Primary Examiner-Benjamin A. Borchelt Assistant Examiner-Daniel A. Bent Attorney-Charles R. Fay

[57] ABSTRACT l 1 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTEDMARZY I972 SHEET .3 [IF 3 w mil AUTOMATIC MANUFACTURE OF CLOTHING BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION One of the most difficult manufactures to automateresides in the garment industry in which traditionally hand work and conventional sewing machines have been exclusively used.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An endless continuous conveyor is provided with a lineof pallets which may be either vertically or horizontally arranged thereon to proceed in a closedpathl Eachpallet has mounted thereon a tooling station and a work nest for travel from station to station by means ofthe conveyor.

There are stacks of similar garment pieces previously cut and with suitable adhesive applied thereto in correct locations, and a transfer mechanism whichtransfers the garment parts oneby-one to the work nests in a predetermined arrangement as the latter proceed along the path of the conveyor.

The tooling station controls the corresponding work nest and tag, turns the same for correct alignment of various garment parts thereon such as the front panel and rear panel of a skirt or pants, and also provides a pneumatic means for holding the thus arranged parts in position on the work nest for securement thereof, and also discharging the garmentsafter they have been connected.

In general the garments to be made are prearranged with respect to the positioning of the work nest and the positioning of various garment parts thereon. The work nests'may be of different suitable configurations; they maybe made in sections to make them longer or shorter and they may even'be made collapsible for the assembly of certain garments. The arrangement or sequence of providing the garment parts is of course carefully controlled as is also the rotation of the work nests by I the tooling stations in order to receive the various parts in desired locations.

Supposing the garment is to have inside pockets, the pockets are positioned on the work nest first and then the garment part to which the pockets are to be secured are overlaid, then other garment parts such as outside pockets'or the like are overlaid with respect to the garment part overlying the inside pockets.

Ejection of the finished garment is always in a direction easiest for this purpose, i.e., in many cases the work nests will have larger inner ends and smaller outer ends so that for instance skirts, jackets, pants, etc., may be appropriately discharged therefrom, as by a blast of air provided'by the tooling stations.

Means is provided for activating the prepositioned adhesives when all of the garment parts required have been placed in position, and the entire operation is made completely automatic, there being needed only a single attendant and a helper who provides the stacks of garment parts when exhausted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a generally diagrammatic plan view illustrating the machine;

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation illustrating the automatic cutting, cementing, etc., of the garment parts;

FIG. 3 is a view in side elevation illustrating the transfer of garments from a stack by means of vacuum pickup to the work nest;

FIG. 4 is a view in end elevation illustrating a form of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a view on an enlarged scale illustrating the combination of the tooling station and work nest, and

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate garments made.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION In FIG. 1 there is shown an endless conveyor 10.which is constantly driven as by pulleys or sprockets l2, and it is provided with a series of in this case vertically arranged pallets 14,

14. Each pallet supports a combined tooling station 16, 16 and work nest 18. The work nests 18 are outboard with respect to the conveyor and the tooling stations are inboard thereof, these members proceeding with their pallets 14 in a closed path, receiving seriatim, cut parts of the garments in prearranged superposed relationship and eventually having the same cemented together while on the work nests, as is illustrated at 20 and.22, 22 representing cut parts positioned on respective work nests 18. In other words, the garment is completely finished before even a complete circuit of a particular tooling station and work nest about the closed path, i.e., the parts are applied as required, cemented, and

. discharged.

The material of which the garments are to be made is provided in a coil 24 which is fed by a nip 26 to an automatic cement seaming unit 28,.see FIG. 2. This unit is provided with means to cause it to reciprocate for instance in a vertical direction in timed relationship with respect to the travel of the webof goods which is indicated at 30 providing cementing lines. With some kinds of cement an infra-red dry setting unit such as indicated at 32 is used to dry the cement preparatory to die cutting the garmentparts at-the press 34. The parts stack at 36 and the waste proceeds to a bin at 38.

The operator takes the stacked parts and positions them where neededwith respect to the line of advance of the work nests 18 in FIG. 1, as at 40, 40.

.FIG. 3 illustrates a form of transfer mechanism, i.e., pickup and delivery units for therespective work nests, etc., at 18. It will be noted that these work nests are shown in different sizes and shapes and this is illustrative of the fact that they take many different forms. The stack 40 has a vacuum pickup device 44 which is moved between the two positions at stack pickup and work nest delivery, by a carriage drive mechanism or a traverse mechanism as is clearly shown in FIG. 3. The pickup device 44 is provided with nozzles at 46 and these are adjusted to suit the shape and size of the formed flat sheets on the stack. The vacuum is provided by conventional means, and so also is the traverse. It is clear that any kind of suitable mechanisms can be utilized for operating these devices and the same are controlled to operate in timed relation with respect to the advance of the work nests about the closed path described above.

.FIG. 4 illustrates an end view of the machine described above, the stack 40 being shown in diagrammatic form as are the transfer mechanism at 44, the work nest at 18 and the tooling station as at 16. This tooling station is provided with suitable bearings for a spindle 50 which is intermittently rotated in timed relation to a partial degree by means of a reversing device 52 having a suitable support on the tooling station. At the proper instant the work nest 18 will be indexed to the degree required to receive for instance a front panel of a skirt and then the rear panel thereof.

A vacuum; pump and blow-off device isv generally indicated at 54 andthis serves to at the proper time provide a holding vacuum with respect to the work nest 18 and when required a blow-off to discharge the finished garment.

The arrangement is shown on a larger scale in FIG. 5. The vacuum pump 54 for instance operates through the double swivel pipe joint indicated at 60 and 62 through a fitting 64 and through the tubular member comprising the spindle 50 which is appropriately mounted in bearings 66 for turning by means of a gearing 68 actuated by the reversing device 52.

The work nest which has been generally indicated at 18 may be as shown, provided in sections having different shapes as at 70 to suit the requirements, and the same may be collapsible if this is required by the garment to be made. In general it is of stainless steel and has a great many very fine perforations so as to receive the benefit of the vacuum holding and the blow-off provided by the vacuum pump device at 54. It will be noted that in FIG. 5 the pallet has been indicated as at 14' and it is a horizontal one as distinct from those that are shown as vertical in FIG. 1.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate various garments which may be made and as for instance a button strip 80 may be laid onto an open jacket 82, outside pockets 84, 84 on an open coat 86, etc. The point here is that it is merely necessary to properly design the garment, to arrange the various stacks of cut parts in the proper location and to arrange and actuate the transfers, work nests, and adhesive actuators properly in order to in turn properly laminate the various garment parts involved.

As an incidental, a great many of the machine parts of the present invention are available commercially such as the die cutting and stripping press, the automatic cement and seam unit and even the complete transfer unit, as well as the cement heating and pressing unit which activates the cement, this unit being recently designed and now available. It includes various vacuum nozzles which are minutely adjustable to the exact positions required. the same being true as to heating and pressing units for the cementing of the garments.

An important feature of the present invention resides in the provision of an additional work nest of proper size, shape and length for the proposed application, together with a full tooling station which is bench mounted so that the designer or process engineer may establish in advance just how each separate piece should be placed and its sequence on the work nest so as to provide a guide for all adjustments at all stations, thus ensuring proper sequence of operations, etc.

it will be seen from the disclosure herein that the present invention provides a process for the automatic manufacture of garments which is not effected by minor or major styling changes of material, color, or shape or of the pieces or numbers, etc., and the process is not effected in any way by the kinds of materials which may be used such as cloth, paper, foil, plastic or nonwoven materials of any sort. The machine provides a common single work nest for the complete manufacture of each entire garment and each operation is performed at a different station in an endless closed cycle. The work nest is capable of being turned to any registered position desired for any operation and has a reversible turning function to such other positions as may be required subsequently; and the work nest also provides precision positioning and register of the various pieces by use of the perforated surface and use of a vacuum, together with the ability to blow off or eject the garment at the delivery station.

The machine is capable of using cements of any kind, adhesives, glues, resins, bonding, or any other means to fasten the pieces of the garments together, or even sewing for fastening of small pieces or sub-assemblies before arriving at the assembly machine for the final operation. But a single operator and one helper are required for normal production at rates of five to thirty garments per minute completely made.

The invention contemplates and provides a continuous web in-line process from the roll of material through pinch rolls feeding the same and operations of applying cement" to the entire pattern area as specified, drying, diecutting, and stacking ready for the next operation. Standard feed roll stands for all reels for all materials can be used. Feeding may be done by intermittent stroke to move materials from station to station at a speed in keeping with preestablished cycles in the pattern area. The cement can be applied by any commercial method and any drying such as standard infra-red or other heat application which will not discolor or otherwise harm materials and standard die cutting methods of steel rules, etc., may be utilized.

The machine comprises an automatic endless carrier of any suitable construction with either horizontal or vertical position pallets for intermittent operating cycle traverse from station to station in a continuous operation, also including the function of being reversible in direction if such should be required. The carrier mounts the tooling stations with the work nests with mechanism to rotate and position in one or reverse directions at any preselected angle and with the partial vacuum and blow-off mechanisms. The work nests are adjustable for sizes and hold the pieces at exact position of register which is predetermined by the internal vacuum and these work nests can be interchangeable with the outside shape and contour to meet all stylists-designer and process engineer requirements.

Stationary floor-type operating stations of the different types and functions which have been described above, automatically feed and retract, for the feeding of pieces of material and sub-assemblies, and for other operations such as heat setting, ironing, bonding, etc., as may be required in the normal production sequences of different garment manufacture. Also there may be included an automatic master operating and timer control to provide instant sequence timing of every individual circuit operation of the entire process.

It is also to be noted that when the word cementing is used in this application, it also includes fibers in which the cementing capability is already in the material as is the case where a certain percentage of nylon or plastic, etc., is used and heat sealing, etc., is possible without the use of any actual adhesive being applied.

Furthermore, this cementing, or the application of any kind of adhesive, may take place at either or both sides of any particular garment part, according to the design needs of the garment. For example, three or more garment parts may come together at a single location and thus some pieces will be ccmented at both sides.

lclaim:

l. A machine for manufacturing garments automatically comprising an endless conveyor, a series of pallets on the conveyor, a tooling station and a work nest on each pallet, each work nest providing surfaces for the reception of various garment parts one after another in a predetermined superposed arrangement, said tooling station including means for shifting the work nest therefor and also means actuating the work nest to hold the garment parts and to remove the complete garment, and means securing said garment parts together in the complete garment.

2. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein the work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell.

3. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein the work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell and the means for holding the garment thereto comprises vacuum provided by a pump at the tooling station.

4. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein said work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell, a spindle mounting the same, and means for rotating at least partially said perforated shell in order to receive garment parts in a predetermined pattern.

5. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein said work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell, a spindle mounting the same, and means for rotating at least partially said perforated shell in order to receive garment parts in a predetermined pattern, and a vacuum pump on said tooling station providing vacuum for holding the garment parts in position on the work nest prior to adhesively uniting the same.

6. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein said work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell, a spindle mounting the same, and means for rotating at last partially said perforated shell in order to receive garment parts in a predetermined pattern, and a vacuum pump on said tooling station providing vacuum for holding the garment parts in position on the work nest prior to adhesively uniting the same and providing blowoff of the finished garment after the cementing operation.

7. A machine for the manufacture of garments comprising means for stacking like garment parts seriatim about a closed path, an endless conveyor, a tooling station and a work nest on the conveyor, the conveyor carrying the work nests past the stacks of garment parts, means picking up the top sheet of each stack, one after the other, and applying the same to the work nest, said work nest being provided with means for holding the garments in the prearranged position, means joining the various garments after they have been properly positioned on the work nest, and means for removing the garments from the individual work nests.

ment part in the correct location on an underneath garment part already applied thereto.

10. The machine recited in claim 7 wherein the work nest is detachable and replaceable.

11. The machine of claim 7 including a spindle on which the work nest is mounted, means detachably securing the work 9. The machine recited in claim 7 wherein the work nests 5 nest to the Spindle and means to rotate the p are sectional and momentarily collapsible. 

1. A machine for manufacturing garments automatically comprising an endless conveyor, a series of pallets on the conveyor, a tooling station and a work nest on each pallet, each work nest providing surfaces for the reception of various garment parts one after another in a predetermined superposed arrangement, said tooling station including means for shifting the work nest therefor and also means actuating the work nest to hold the garment parts and to remove the complete garment, and means securing said garment parts together in the complete garment.
 2. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein the work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell.
 3. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein the work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell and the means for holding the garment thereto comprises vacuum provided by a pump at the tooling station.
 4. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein said work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell, a spindle mounting the same, and means for rotating at least partially said perforated shell in order to receive garment parts in a predetermined pattern.
 5. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein said work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell, a spindle mounting the same, and means for rotating at least partially said perforated shell in order to receive garment parts in a predetermined pattern, and a vacuum pump on said tooling station providing vacuum for holding the garment parts in position on the work nest prior to adhesively Uniting the same.
 6. The machine recited in claim 1 wherein said work nest comprises a hollow perforated shell, a spindle mounting the same, and means for rotating at last partially said perforated shell in order to receive garment parts in a predetermined pattern, and a vacuum pump on said tooling station providing vacuum for holding the garment parts in position on the work nest prior to adhesively uniting the same and providing blow-off of the finished garment after the cementing operation.
 7. A machine for the manufacture of garments comprising means for stacking like garment parts seriatim about a closed path, an endless conveyor, a tooling station and a work nest on the conveyor, the conveyor carrying the work nests past the stacks of garment parts, means picking up the top sheet of each stack, one after the other, and applying the same to the work nest, said work nest being provided with means for holding the garments in the prearranged position, means joining the various garments after they have been properly positioned on the work nest, and means for removing the garments from the individual work nests.
 8. The machine recited in claim 7 in which the work nests are individually rotatable so as to position a superposed garment part in the correct location on an underneath garment part already applied thereto.
 9. The machine recited in claim 7 wherein the work nests are sectional and momentarily collapsible.
 10. The machine recited in claim 7 wherein the work nest is detachable and replaceable.
 11. The machine of claim 7 including a spindle on which the work nest is mounted, means detachably securing the work nest to the spindle, and means to rotate the spindle. 